Orange - worst service - help, rights??

[sayhello_walrus]

Hi everyone. Can someone please give me some advice regarding the problems I've been having with my Orange contract.

 

In January, I signed up to a 24 month contract with Orange for a HTC Desire HD. Over the course of 4 months I had nothing but problems with the phone dropping calls. I rang them SO MANY times about the problem, went through all the diagnostic steps they gave me, nothing made a difference. This went on until about two weeks ago, when I finally had enough and asked for a replacement phone. They sent another HTC Desire, the same problem happened, so I looked up "HTC desire calls dropping" and it turns out it's a pretty common problem with the phone. So, I rang Orange again, I asked to speak to a supervisor and told him that I wanted a different brand of phone. He said that due to their policy, he could only provide a different brand of phone once I had had two replacement of the same model as my own. But, since I had other problems with Orange also he would send a second replacement with the arrangement that he would ring the next day and have one of his team "run through the options for a new phone" (they disconnected my phone contract when they had meant to disconnect my mobile internet. They also charged me £30 for data used outside my package, despite the fact that I remained religiously within the data limit my Orange software was reporting)

 

Well, that phone call the next day from the Orange supervisor necver happened and I had to ring them again and explain the situation. The girl I spoke to said there is no record of my conversation with the supervisor and their policy states that after two replacement of the same kind of model they are only by law obliged to provide me with a "like for like" model. I had only one choice then, to take the HTC 7 Mozart. I made clear that I really was not happy with the situation but of course was told there was nothing they could do. She said that once I accept this Mozart phone, there's no going back to the Desire. I assumed that "like for like" meant that this Mozart replacement would have the same features and specifications as my own phone, so I accepted. If I had known that it was not as good, I would have been a lot more careful about my decision, so I don't see why I should be subject to this "no going back" policy when the "like for like" policy wasn't accurate. The ONLY good thing about the Desire was that it had a really amazing camera, and the Mozart just doesn't compare at all. I rang and said I was aware that the Orange policy dictates that one cannot return to their original model once they recieve a like for like model. So, based on the fact that the Mozart is clearly not a like for like model, I stated I would like to put my sim card into a cheap, working old phone I have and have my Desire back for use of the camera. They claimed this is impossible. I asked to be told exactly WHY: the woman (a supervisor) I spoke to would not deviate from her policy speech. I never got an actual reason.

 

Now, my question is: do have any rights here? I have tried to make a complaint to the Ombudsman for Telecommunications, but curiously Orange isn't a list of their participating companies. I would, in the best case scenario, like to cancel my contract. Absolutely best case scenario would be that I could argue that I haven't recieved a satisfactory service and should not have to honour my contract agreement, which I presume is for me to pay for a satisfactory service. I would settle for them allowing me to have the Desire back (I really don't understand why not, there is no practical reason!) and have the setup previously mentioned. I'm sorry about the rambling, I just want to be clear about everything.

[rebel11]

Hi say

 

Welcome to CAG

The guys will advise as soon as they are available.

 

You need to write a Formal Letter of Complaint to Orange, mark the letter as such, address it to the Managing Director. Explain whats happened and what you want them to do. Include as much detail as possible. Send it Recorded Let's see what they say. When you ring up Customer Service you are speaking to someone who will

not take ownership of the problem.

[locutus]

Here is oranges complaints procedure

http://www1.orange.co.uk/documents/about/Orange-complaints-code-20110118.pdf

Follow that and see if you get anywhere

[watchinginvestigation2011]

How are you op, getting anywhere or fobbed off like the rest of us? xx

[madcatz]

They are part of CISAS who are the OFCOM approved arbitrator. You have gotton further with Orange than I have (read 'orange obstinately determined to fail its customers). I have an HTC Desire + one customer rep suggested it Cud be the phone or SIM but then an idiot at exec office who hasn't even phoned to try speaking to me on it refused to believe I was suffering dropped calls +implied I was lying so they have refused to do anything. Obviously they r also ignoring the report of their own rep who reported the dropped call + bad signal while speak to me.

 

I really need an alternative contact means (to get past the complete dunce who keeps responding to my emails) as there are many options they haven't tried yet.

[MARTIN3030]

What you need to be doing is a full SAR and try getting hold of everything-which should include evidence of all you have done to try and get this sorted.

I would forget the emails.

[watchinginvestigation2011]

They are part of CISAS who are the OFCOM approved arbitrator. You have gotton further with Orange than I have (read 'orange obstinately determined to fail its customers). I have an HTC Desire + one customer rep suggested it Cud be the phone or SIM but then an idiot at exec office who hasn't even phoned to try speaking to me on it refused to believe I was suffering dropped calls +implied I was lying so they have refused to do anything. Obviously they r also ignoring the report of their own rep who reported the dropped call + bad signal while speak to me.

 

I really need an alternative contact means (to get past the complete dunce who keeps responding to my emails) as there are many options they haven't tried yet.

 

"implied I was lying" Yep typical orange executive office. I say was told unlimited internet, they say no we are confident you would have been told 750mb, rubbish:-x